"Just stick as close to me as you can." Holly says, jumping behind the desk that Brad and Henry hid behind. "I haven't figured out how to get this thing to cover a large area." She says, tapping the shard at her wrist. "But it can still cover the three of us if we stick within a few feet of one another." She leaned against Henry and propped herself under his arm again. "So where is this helicopter?"

Ϡ
This isn't about you and your loud mouth,This is about me and my fucking beard.

It seemed as though Seifer had been smacked hard by the rocks, but indeed, he had stopped, brought his feet up, and now held an odd balance on the rock. He slashed the top half off horizantally and leaned back to let it pass by. He looked at the floating Josiah and suddenly a vision came flooding to the surface.

[flashback] In a crowded city, 5 years ago, a younger Seifer was running blindly from his pursuers. He had gotten an infamous bounty on his head for picking fights with anyone who belittle him, regardless of status. He had already killed Marinae officials accidentily because of their incompetance in keeping themselves alive. And now, headhunters were on his tail, and he knew he had little hope of escaping. He'd used up his shard energy, and he was physically exhausted. Each breath stung, and each step blurred his vision more and more. The large gash on his back was flowing blood, as were the smaller cuts on his arms. He finally reached the corner and dove for the blurry figure before him!

"PARTNER, now!"

A younger Josiah stood, smiling, focusing his energy.

"Will do!"

Josiah turned the corner and destroyed the heavily weakened group of headhunters with a small, deft movement. As soon as they seemed to stop moving, Josiah turned to look at a bloody Seifer lying on the ground, giving him a thumbs up.

"Another hunt bites the dust."[/flashback]

Seifer growled loudly, remembering the betrayal 3 years before. Josiah had been his partner, but then the unforgivable occured. Seifer leaped off the pavement and with the energy he drew from his very being, he pointed his sword at Josiah and let loose an incredibly massive attack.

"DOGS OF WAR!"

He slashed madly, seemingly without any method to this madness, until an observing eye would detect the shockwave slashes were not leaving the vicinity. Apporoximately 35 shockwave slashes were orbiting his blade. He dashed up close to his enemy, about 5ft, and swung a mighty slash, creating an unbelieveably large shockwave slash, approximately 15ft long and extremely thick. After swinging this, Seifer simply fell, and adjusted himself so he was falling back-first and his sword was pointed at Josiah. He let loose The Dogs of War, the orbiting slashes, which formed a beam of powerful Holy Trinity with shockwave slashes in it. The momentum of releasing the super powerful technique launched Seifer into the ground hard, and his body indented the hard dirt. He was also completley drained of Holy Trinity energy, which left him largely undefended. However, this technique has had an almost perfect success rate, as the original slash as well as the blast are not only too fast to easily dodge, they essentially cut through almost anything.

After launching the amazing blast, Seifer lied immoble in his small crater, his eyes closed. If this technique didn't at least weaken Josiah, he was a goner.

Josiah was spun around by the slash, then was blasted into the side of E'shyum tower. The force with which he hit the tower was so great that he created a dent 15 feet across the reinforced window.

He was stunned momentarily, but as he looked down he noticed that most of his clothes had been disintegrated, and his skin had actually been fairly scratched up.

He pushed off from the building, and dropped down beside Seifer, the pavement cracking under him. He reached down and lifted his foe. He threw Seifer into the side of the building, in the same motion ripping off his trenchcoat.

Before she could get an answer, she heard loud crashes from outside and the building shook slightly.

"Shit..." She mumbled. She turned to Brad. "I don't fully understand why...but I think I can trust you..." She grabbed her shard and took off her bracelet. She then closed the bracelet, knowing that it wouldn't fit Brad anyway. Frantically, she grabbed his hand and shoved her shard in it. She then closed his fingers around it. "It should protect both you and Henry. Get to the helicopter and come get us..."

She then darted out from under the shield, and made a mad dash for the outside, yet again. How she didn't get shot, she didn't know. Perhaps some of the guards were too suprised, because there weren't many bullets fired in her direction. Once outside, she could the large crater-like dent in the ground that Seifer left behind. However, Seifer wasn't anywhere to be spotted...his coat was, but he wasn't the one wearing it.

Holly took in a deep breath and charged at Josiah. Once close enough, she tackled him to the ground.

"You son of a bitch!" She shouted. She grabbed hold of the collar of Seifer's coat and shoved Josiah to the ground. "No magic...no shards. Hand to hand combat, let's see how you fair...you claim to be strong...I don't believe it! All you do is betray people...and for what?!" Her eyes swelled up with tears, but they didn't fall. She continued to have a tight grip on the collar and she was breathing heavily. She didn't know what hit her. All she knew was that she was sick of sitting back. She glared down angrily at Josiah. She didn't know where her sudden burst of energy came from, but she hoped to buy Seifer some time to get back on his feet.

Ϡ
This isn't about you and your loud mouth,This is about me and my fucking beard.

Seifer was rising slowly off the ground, dizzy and weak, when he saw Holly ready to punch Josiah. He called upon his hidden shard and attempted to dash forward, but he felt a pain in his chest like he might have broken a rib. He cursed loudly and continued the run, calling out to Holly.

"No, Holly! Don't!"

He pulled her off him and carried her away, feeling the pain in his chest grow immensiley. He put Holly down and turned back at Josiah, knowing he wouldn't last much longer if they went head to head.

"Holly, I'm going to give it one more try. If I fail, then I will be in immense danger. However, if I succeed, then I will buy us enough time to escape. Please wait for me."

Before Josiah knew what happened a small figure had knocked him to the ground. He looked up, trying to comprehend the blur that was yelling at him, it was pulled off him. He floated up from the ground and alighted back on his feet. He brought his hands up and the ground that the pair stood on rose into the air.

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE!"

He clapped his hands together and the pavement broke in half and overturned, then dropped down.

KatanaDark Wizard\"She said tonight...come on come on collide...see what I fire feels like..I bet its just like heaven.\"

Holly was about to protest Seifer's statement when Josiah rose to his feet. She immediately grabbed hold of Seifer and pulled him close to her. She cringed and did her very best to keep her balance as the ground beneath them rose. Shouting at them was Josiah's one flaw in his attack...at least the one Holly picked up. That gave her the first clue that something else was coming. Still holding onto Seifer, she used her body weight to knock him off to the side and kicked off the pavement. As she hit the ground, the wind was knocked out of her. Rather than try to regain her breath right away, she rolled off to the side, dragging Seifer with her. Once they were far enough away from the falling rocks, Holly sat up on her knees, took in a deep breath and then let it out.

She looked over at Seifer, panting. "I'm sorry...I know I've more than likely caused you more pain...but, you're hurt too much to fight him right now. Mr. Desin should be here with a helicopter any second now...but...if something happens to you..." She looked down to the ground, her hands clenching her jeans tightly. "...it'll be all my fault." She took in another deep breath. "It'll be fine until Brad gets here...I can last a few seconds."

By then, the rocks had finished falling and the ground had completely settled again. Slowly, she got to her feet and turned toward Josiah.

"I give up!" She shouted to him, raising her hands in defeat. "I'll give it to you now...but you have to promise not to hurt anybody else!"

(OOC: Sorry for taking over there Cairoi. I was sick of being helpless. XD and I suck at SIM, so my maneuvering here blows too. Sorry.)

Brad grimaced. She gives him the shard, and rushes off...it was unlikely that anymore than one person was going to survive this, and that person was sitting in the top story of an office building, watching everyone kill each other.

He grabbed Holly's shard, and quickly activated it. He turned towards the helicopter pad, and started running. Byullets bounced off of him as soldiers tried to take his life, and Brad kept running. They were near the helicopter, almost to safety...

He grabbed the door to the helicopter, and threw the old man into the back seat. He then quickly went into the front, and started the blades turning. The time it took was agonizing, every second felt like an hour.

The helicopter started to lift. Now came the hard part, the part of getting past Josiah and resucing them. He turned the chopper towards them, but hesitated...he had Holly's shard right now, he coul simply give it to Josiah, and end this whole thing. But no, she gave him her trust, and he wasn't one to betray trust.

He flew in, his missiles armed, and machine guns loaded. He moved in silently...this helicopter was meant for stealth, unlike most, it could be only a few meters away, and you would have no idea it was there. He aimed his crosshairs at Josiah, with Holly and Seifer between the two.

He started shooting, and lowered the helicopter so that Seifer and Holly could get on...The missles should create a shockwave to stop Josiah from being able to get a firm jump and land on the helicopter, Of course, he did just survive a shotgun blast...

Josiah could hear approaching helicopters. Not just the one being piloted by Brad, but the army quickly approaching the towers.

Alden held on to the metal bar going across the ceiling of the transport helicopter. He reached up and grabbed the microphone hanging on the wall.

"Your objectives are simple, soldiers:" he spoke, broadcasting to the entire fleet, "Eliminate all hostile forces with extreme discretion."

He looked across the bay to Leon, "Now, I don't want you to let your emotions to get in the way of this. You're lucky I'm letting you fight along side my troops." Then to Jeremy, "Are you sure you want to be here, and not comforting your brother?"

"No, he said he wanted to stay in his room to... mourn. He'll be fine, for now."

"Good, because it's time."

Alden reached out and grabbed the line hanging from above, and slid down.

As the rockets hit the ground Josiah leapt into the air, landing in Jack's office.

"It's time for us to leave."

As Alden hit the ground he ignited his energy sword. An E'shyum soldier charged at him and he slashed, cutting the enemy in half. He jerked his arm back, slamming his elbow into another troop's face. He dodged another attack and quickly headed for the elevator.

He looked at the dark buttons, caused by the EMP blast they had launched just before landing. He looked up to the ceiling and fired a laser from the shard in his palm, cutting a large hole. He brought it down, using telekinesis, and threw it through the open doors.

He crouched down low and sprung into the air, bouncing back and forth between the walls of the elevator shaft, until he had reached the top.

Jeremy stayed low, attracting little attention, until he saw the helicopter being piloted by Brad, with Holly in the back. Assuming that Brad had taken Holly hostage, he grasped the shard around his neck. Brad's hand suddenly jerked to the left, causing the helicopter to dip close to the ground. Jeremy leaped into the air, and grabbed the track underneath the chopper and pulled himself up. He drew his SI pistol and aimed it at the back of Brad's head.

"Alright, just land the helicopter and let the girl go."

"Alright, Josiah, this is where it ends."

"I'm sorry, Don, but me and Jack have many more plans before the end. I hope you'll be there to see it."

Josiah grabbed Jack and stepped off the edge. Everyone on the ground stared in awe as the pair seemingly vanished into thin air. But from his vantage point Alden could see the portal that Josiah had created. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and jumped after them.

KatanaDark Wizard\"She said tonight...come on come on collide...see what I fire feels like..I bet its just like heaven.\"

(OOC: Okay, so I talked to FX, and Cairoi, I think we would've gotten on the helicopter eventually anyways, so....might as well continue the story...)

When Brad finally came with the helicopter, Holly was thrilled. She didn't exactly have any back up plans for when Josiah found out that she was bluffing about her shard. She looked back at Seifer and gave him a small smile. "We can settle this later...please, just take time to get better, then you'll have your chance." Suddenly, the other helicopters caught Holly's attention. She watched in horror as Marinae soldiers dropped down from them...

No sooner had she and Seifer entered the helicopter, did Jeremy show his face. When she saw him come close, she made her way to the front, where she assumed he would show up. She screamed as he made his enterance onto the helicopter and pointed his gun at Brad's head.

"Stop it!" She exclaimed. "Put the gun down...he hasn't hurt anyone." Her face contorted into a glare, as she locked eyes with Jeremy. "What are the Marinae doing? If they hurt anyone, I swear, I'll..."

She didn't know what to say. You'll what, Holly? she thought to herself. There was nothing that she really could do. "Now I KNOW Alden isn't concerned enough about anyone's saftey but his own, so I can't believe that this is completely some sort of rescue mission..."

Brad didn't need Holly's shard for this one, though it would have come as a suprise to Jeremy. Intead then he used his energy shard, and made kinetic energy suddenly flow at Jeremy's gun, hopefully knocking it away. He added in some heat energy too, makin it so that the gun would burn Jeremy's hand if he din't let go.

"I don't have her hostage, I'm helping her escape!"

Brad looked out the window, and saw Jack being grabbed, thrown out the window and then disappearing. This couldn't be good, not good at all. Jack was in charge of the troops in this area, and without either him or Brad, they wouldn't be very coordinated. Brad had to stay, and if this Marinae tried to stop him, this Marinae would find himself getting killed.

"Soldiers, This is Commander Desin." he said. "Head for cover. I want the pilots protected, and brought to their planes. Go as soon as you can, five soldiers for each pilot. I want the pilots brought to their planes, now! All remaining soldiers, head for shelter, and standby for further orders."

The automatic turrets activated. These were extremely accurate, and would not miss a single shot. Most were armed with armour peicing bullets, fired by an automatic capable of firing ten shots a second. They also had computers in each which could calculate exactly where to shoot to cause the most damage.

They started firing, as did the missle silos. There were fifty primary turrets, thirty missle silos, and a hundred backups for each. As most people stupid enough to attack Jack could tell, he took security very seriously. Survivng in a helicopter, or even most planes, would be nearly impossible. Fortunately Brad was in an E'shyum chopper, which emitted a beacon showing him as friendly.

Leon landed climactically beside Seifer, having actually made the EXTREMELY dangerous helecopter to helicopter jump, he was quite proud of himself.

"Long time no see."

He noticed Brad and heard what he said.

"So. Josiah anywhere around? I've got a bone to pick with him."

Leon had vigilantly commanded the people flying Alden's helicopter, at gunpoint mind you, to swoop in close enough so he could try the jump. He had seen holly and Seifer from afar and decided that he should be in the company of friends. Having ignored what Alden had said, he figured that he wouldn't get access to the file anymore. So, he figured he'd try out what he learned on his displacement shard attached to his sword.

Seifer looked over at Leon and laughed. He was lying against the wall of the helicoptor, rubbing his incredibly painful chest. With each breath, he could feel the internal damages slightly expanding.

"Leon, long time no see indeed....You are not what I expected to see, but definately someone who I appreciate finding....I suppose I need to talk to you later about Josiah. For now, make yourself comfortable."

He slowly rose, and looked over at Holly. He felt disappointed, he had wanted to do more for her, but he had not seen true difficult battle in months, and now he could offer her any protection. He felt worthless as a guardian. He smiled weakly at her, and then limped into the cockpit. With a stifled growl, he sat down at the cockpilot's seat and turned to Brad/

"We have to leave E'shuyum territory and escape Josiah. I have some property in neutral territory close to here, former Michigan. Outside Lansing. Tons of acres, nobody around. We can rest and recuperate while we figure out what to do next."

He patted Brad on the shoulder, painstakingly rose, and walked into the back where the others waited.

"We're headed to my home, where we'll be safe."

KatanaDark Wizard\"She said tonight...come on come on collide...see what I fire feels like..I bet its just like heaven.\"

Holly clenched her fists angrily as she heard Brad make his announcement. She didn't protest it this time, however. She glanced over at Brad. "I don't condone it...but I guess its self defense this time..."

Holly gasped as she heard something else enter the helicopter, but to her suprise, it was Leon. She didn't say anything, nor did she know what came over her, but she made her way over to him and hugged him, practically diving on him.

"You know, you could've stopped them from leaving the Marinae base." She says playfully as she tilts her head upward to look at him. She then glanced over at Seifer and saw him rubbing his chest. She could tell that he was in pain simply by the way he moved about the helicopter.

"Sit." She says sternly, pointing to where he had just gotten up from. She pulled herself away from Leon and folded her arms across her chest. "And you were going to continue fighting. Have you gone insane?!" She exclaims, waving her arms about slightly.

"We'll worry about Josiah once we're all rested." She says, shooting a sideways glance at Leon. She had not seen Josiah go off with Jack, so she didn't realize how urgent it may have been to find him as soon as possible.

Ϡ
This isn't about you and your loud mouth,This is about me and my fucking beard.

Seifer looked at Holly deeply for a moment, unsure of what to do. Normally, he regarded everyone with a level of detachment, even those he had been particularly close with, never losing his cool or unsure of himself. But at this moment he felt unsure, terribly unsure, over a small decision that could alter his life forever. For a moment he was entirely silent, with a small smirk on his face, nothing in the world but Holly, and the eyes he used to see her. The roar of the chopper, the other people in the chamber, the pain in his chest, they seemed to not even appear to him. At that moment, the war between his mind and heart came to an end, and he took a small step back.

"As you wish, Holly." Maybe in the future..., he thought to himself.

He slowly sat down, focusing on suppressing the outward signs of pain. Without adrenaline, this was going to hurt like a bitch until he could get home. He closed his eyes and tried to summon up a plan of action over the period of peace he was expecting. He needed to heal, he needed to train, and he needed to spend alone time with Holly. Those were his main objectives.

KatanaDark Wizard\"She said tonight...come on come on collide...see what I fire feels like..I bet its just like heaven.\"

Holly looked strangely at Seifer for a moment before blinking it away. "How long do you reckon it will take us to get to your place?" She asks as she walks over and kneels beside him. "This is going to hurt...probably a lot." She says, looking over at him with a sly smile as she placed her hands over his ribcage. She didn't apply any pressure just yet. Rather, she ran her fingers gingerly over them to see if she could feel anything wrong. Then, she applied pressure ever so slightly.

"Few of them might be broken...they should probably be wrapped up now." She glanced around the chopper, looking around for something she could use to wrap them.

Brad leaned forward, opened a drawer, and slid a first aid kit to Holly. He then locked the controls of the helicopter, they were out of range of the Marinae fighters, and also out of range of talking to his troops, unfortunately. He hoped they actually obeyed his orders, he may have been leaving them, but he still cared about his soldiers...he was the only commander in the E'shyum who did.

He stood up from his seat, and go into the back of the helicopter. "Considering that I just disobeyed orders and now have almost every single faction against me, I think I deserve some answers. First off, I can recognize a few faces, I am familiar with Leon and Holly, but who are the rest of you?

"Also, who, or rather what, is Josiah? What is his initiative?"

Ϡ
This isn't about you and your loud mouth,This is about me and my fucking beard.

He laughed a little bit as once more slowly rose. However, he still leaned against the wall.

"Josiah is, from all I know, one of the smartest and deadliest people living. He used to be my partner, and I remember vividly the day he learned to amplify the power of shards. My shards are amplified, but it's been so long since I've really used them, I don't have much of a control over their max power. Every shard he uses, he manipulates to max out their power. We had a falling out a few years ago, and I thought I had killed him. Obviously, I was wrong. I don't know how, or why he does the things he's doing. But I feel a need to stop him."

Seifer looks around at every member in this copter, eyeing them up. He had a clear and able mind on Brad's head, he had the sword and gun of Leon, he had two unconcious men, and of course he had Holly. Suddenly, a thought came into his head.

"I have a propostition. Each one of us here hails from different factions and backgrounds, but we are all united in a fear of Josiah. He is a threat to humanity, to the cause of peace and to the future of us all. I think that alone, none of us have any chance against him, it's pure and simple. He essentially killed Leon and he made quick work of me, and from base assumptions we are the strongest here. Together, however, we have a chance. I put aside any ill feelings for each and every one of you. Let us gather our strength at my home, locate Josiah, and put an end to him once and for all. However, I will do nothing if Holly does not approve. I promised to be her guardian, and as such, her word is my law. What do you think, Holly, and the rest of you, what do you as well think? Together, we can be rid of the threat once and for all."

As Brad moved Jeremy's gun, it was knocked out of his hand. He reached after it, but it quickly went skittering off the side of the helicopter. He was looking down after it when he heard Seifer's introduction.

"So, you are Seifer Ehnzo. I thought I had recognized your face, but you hadn't been seen in years. The Marinae have been looking very hard for you."

Leon was damn near shoved out of the open door of the cockpit from Holly's hug. His arm quickly shot out and grabbed onto the side, steadying himself. Smiling as Holly seemingly hugged the life out of him. He heard her comment and looked down as a nervous reaction, trying to hide his eyes and face. As he bagen to look up he noticed that she wasn't even looking at him anymore, that was good, he was too nervous to answer that question. He pulled himself into the helicopter fully and sat on one of the seats available. He pulled his broadsword off his back, checking it for any damage, shining it where there was a mark. This was the first time since he broke the sword out of it's case that he ahd truly spent time looking at it. It has been a while, Leon thought. Leon didn't need his eye to see through Seifer's lie about not fighting anymore.

"Miss Holly, as much as you may dislike it, Seifer and I are warriors at heart. Where there is a cease to fighting we more or less...Break apart, and begin to fall into a never-ending circle of boredom. Bloodshed is the only medicine for us, as we thrive off it." Leon's eyes met Seifer's, "And when we do not have this bloodshed, we find other outlets for our pain. We change you see, we will not be the same without fighting as we were with fighting."

Leon stared coldly into Seifer's eyes, knowing that they shared the same insight. At least, they had before. Seifer must have feelings for this Holly girl, his emotions are becoming apparant, something he never allowed happen before.